{"id":403150,"date":"2026-07-18T04:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403150\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T04:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:27:18","slug":"sandag-approves-proposed-san-diego-transit-fare-hikes-for-mts-nctd-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/403150\/","title":{"rendered":"SANDAG approves proposed San Diego transit fare hikes for MTS, NCTD \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Riders who depend on the Metropolitan Transit System and North County Transit District could pay more for one way fares and monthly passes starting Oct. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandag.org\/meetings-and-events\/policy-advisory-committees\/transportation\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sandag.org\/meetings-and-events\/policy-advisory-committees\/transportation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Transportation Committee<\/a> approved proposed fare increases Friday for the first time since 2009.<\/p>\n<p>If ratified at the board&#8217;s July 24 meeting, the cost of a one-way transit fare would increase by 50 cents to $3 beginning Oct. 1. Monthly passes would increase to $85 while discounted fares for riders who are seniors, youth, disabled, would cost $28 for their monthly pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Traynisha Kendall, an MTS rider, said the higher fares would put additional pressure on riders already struggling with the high cost of living. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rent is already high in San Diego. So, to be riding the trolley and have to pay $6 (roundtrip) is expensive, too. Not everybody has that. They already have to pay a bunch of bills,&#8221; Kendall said while waiting at the 5th Avenue trolley station in downtown on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Both MTS and the North County Transit District face combined budget deficits totaling more than $135 million by 2030. Under the SANDAG committee&#8217;s proposal, another 50-cent fare increase could take effect Oct. 1, 2027.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody wants people to have to pay more to ride the train, ride a bus to get to work and see their family,&#8221; said Aria Grossman, policy manager for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.circulatesd.org\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.circulatesd.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Circulate Planning &amp; Policy<\/a>. An estimated annual $14 million in additional revenue would help prevent service cuts that would lead to longer wait times and reduced transit options.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis just becomes a choice that people don\u2019t want to take and you ultimately lose riders on the system which negatively impacts everyone who needs the system across the county,&#8221; Grossman told NBC San Diego.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the committee&#8217;s reasons, some riders like Jennifer Kennedy believe there is a bigger issue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEspecially when much of California does not really have reliable public transportion, raising the rate just seems unfair and really discouraging,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The full SANDAG board of directors will consider the fare increases at its next meeting on July 24.<\/p>\n<p>This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riders who depend on the Metropolitan Transit System and North County Transit District could pay more for one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[31090,74,76,75,17605,1967],"class_list":["post-403150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-mts","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sandag","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}